The three of them spend two hours resting and discussing their next actions. Aranold proposes using a two-one battle method; both he and Diamond will be at the front, and Leon will be in the back, in charge of support.
Diamond agrees with this after experiencing how attentive Leon was throughout the entire battle; he not only took down multiple zombies but also managed to support the two of them the entire time.
Leon disagrees; his reason is also sound. Since both he and Aranold are quite weak, they must be in the front, responsible for taking care of weaker opponents, leaving the troublesome ones to Diamond.
The two of them need to hurry with their battle in order to assist Diamond; she is not tasked with defeating any powerful foes and only holds on long enough for them to team up.
After a couple of arguments, they finally decided in two battle plans that if the enemies they were going to face were relatively weak, the two boys would be the ones responsible for fighting.
Diamond needs to conserve as much energy as she can; at least they face a powerful foe.
On the other hand, if they are facing a single entity that is too strong for either Aranold or Leon, the two of them will have the support of Diamond, and she will be the one facing the enemy upfront.
"Sorry, Diamond." Leon apologises; he knows that he had asked her to help them in their training, but he did not expect that they would leave most of the heavy lifting.
Aranold also lowers his head in shame; he cannot believe that he is the most useless one in their group, and the main reason why the three of them decided to go here is for him.
"Do not be! I am quite happy that I have discovered my flaw; as long as I can gain as much experience as possible in this journey, it will be totally worth it." She is not disappointed at all; she is actually quite excited.
Leon sighs after seeing her excited expression. He shakes his head and says,.
"I know that after fighting against the flying ghoul, you had gained something, but let me be upfront. I think that you already realised this, but the three of us are not that good at fighting flying-type enemies."
Hearing this, the two frown. Aranold can use his spear; it will return to him after reaching a certain distance as it is one of the soul blessings that is inside one of his soul slots, but he knows that this type of attack is a bit useless against fast-flying monsters such as flying ghouls.
Diamond is not trained in fighting against aggressive flying creatures; she has sparred against individuals that are capable of flight, but it is in limited space, making the situation easier for her.
The only one capable of fighting against a flying creature at elite level is actually Leon, and that is only because the system is capable of pinpointing the location of his target. Also, with the help of his intuition and the system's calculations, he can predict the movement of his target almost 100 percent.
"I should learn more techniques that can travel a certain distance without the need for charging or concentration," Diamond says to herself.
Aranold nods his head after hearing her.
"I was good at hunting birds when I was a child; that inflated my ego, thinking that I could deal with flying beings with ease; now I understand that I am but a fool."
Leon shakes his head and stands up.
"Let us not wallow in regret over our past decisions; we learn from our mistakes, and we must move on and improve ourselves."
The two of them can agree with this; they then return to their journey, but this time they travel in a different direction; they are still incapable of fighting against such large numbers of zombies all by themselves.
"Plants!?" After reaching a certain location, the three of them were surprised by a forest; it should not exist, but it seems that they are still underestimating the complexity of the Nightmare Valley.
"Finally! Hahaha! We can use the trees as cover in order to avoid powerful beings!" Aranold shouted.
Leon stops him from going forward; he was frowning. The two quickly react; they prepare for another battle; they believe in their friend's intuition.
"What is it, Cleo?" Aranold whispers to him.
He shakes his head; his instinct is actually screaming; it is telling him that the trees are dangerous. Without hesitation, he follows it and re-evaluates the forest in front of him.
"Diamond, can you attack the trees in front of us with your golden palm?"
She quickly agrees and starts chanting as her palm emits a golden light. With a deep breath, she throws a flying palm towards the trees.
BOOM! When her attack hits the trees in front of them, it causes a loud boom, and suddenly, the trees that were hit and destroyed release a howl. It was filled with pain and anguish.
The expression of the trio changes, especially Leon, he shouts.
"Retreat!"
Without hesitation, the three of them flee, the trees around the forest start moving, and multiple sharp sticks start flying towards the three of them. It was too fast for Aranold to avoid.
"Yin Claws!" Leon transforms into his Malevolent Tiger form and fires an attack at the incoming sharp sticks, causing them to lose power, but there are still thousands of them chasing after their group.
"Run faster!" Diamond screams as she sees a giant creature appearing out of the forest, looking at them like they are prey.
"F*ck!" Aranold screams; his instinct is telling him that the monster that just came out is incredibly dangerous, much more dangerous than the flying ghoul.
"Continue retreating!" Roars Leon as he is forced to use one of his trump cards.
He raises his foot and stomps on the ground, causing dust to scatter everywhere. He then secretly summons Cleo's clone and orders it to buy them some time.